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ISG must stand for, uh, Inane Strategy Guesswork (Mark Steyn Nails The Illustrious Seniors Group)
Chicago Sun Times ^ | 12/10/2006 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 12/10/2006 2:22:58 AM PST by goldstategop

Well, the ISG -- the Illustrious Seniors' Group -- has released its 79-point plan. How unprecedented is it? Well, it seems Iraq is to come under something called the "Iraq International Support Group." If only Neville Chamberlain had thought to propose a "support group" for Czechoslovakia, he might still be in office. Or guest-hosting for Oprah. But, alas, such flashes of originality are few and far between in what's otherwise a testament to conventional wisdom. How conventional is the ISG's conventional wisdom? Try page 49:

"RECOMMENDATION 5: The Support Group should consist of Iraq and all the states bordering Iraq, including Iran and Syria . . ."

Er, OK. I suppose that's what you famously hardheaded "realists" mean by realism. But wait, we're not done yet. For this "Support Group," we need the extra-large function room. Aside from Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, the ISG -- the Iraq Surrender Gran'pas -- want also to invite:

". . . the key regional states, including Egypt and the Gulf States . . ."

Er, OK. So it's basically an Arab League meeting. Not a "Support Group" I'd want to look for support from, but each to his own. But wait, Secretary Baker's still warming up:

". . . the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . . ."

That would be America, Britain, France, Russia, China. A diverse quintet, representing many distinctive approaches to international affairs from stylish hauteur to polonium-210. Anybody else?

". . . the European Union . . ."

Hey, why not? It's not really multilateral unless there's a Belgian on board, right? Oh, and let's not forget:

". . . the Support Group should call on the participation of the United Nations Secretary-General in its work. The United Nations Secretary-General should designate a Special Envoy as his representative . . ."

Indeed. But it needs to be someone with real clout, like Benon Sevan, the former head of the Oil for Food Program, who recently, ah, stepped down; or Maurice Strong, the Under-Secretary-General for U.N. Reform and godfather of Kyoto, who for one reason or another is presently on a, shall we say, leave of absence; or Alexander Yakovlev, the senior procurement officer for U.N. peacekeeping, who also finds himself under indictment -- er, I mean under-employed. There's no end of top-class talent at the U.N., now that John Bolton's been expelled from its precincts.

So there you have it: an Iraq "Support Group" that brings together the Arab League, the European Union, Iran, Russia, China and the U.N. And with support like that who needs lack of support? It worked in Darfur, where the international community reached unanimous agreement on the urgent need to rent a zeppelin to fly over the beleaguered region trailing a big banner emblazoned "YOU'RE SCREWED." For Dar4.1, they can just divert it to Baghdad.

Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker's "Support Group," relax, it's a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews. Even though Israel is the only country to be required to make specific concessions -- return the Golan Heights, etc. Indeed, insofar as this document has any novelty value, it's in the Frankenstein-meets-the-Wolfman sense of a boffo convergence of hit franchises: a Vietnam bug-out, but with the Jews as the designated fall guys. Wow. That's what Hollywood would call "high concept."

Why would anyone -- even a short-sighted incompetent political fixer whose brilliant advice includes telling the first Bush that no one would care if he abandoned the "Read my lips" pledge -- why would even he think it a smart move to mortgage Iraq's future to anything as intractable as the Palestinian "right of return"? And, incidentally, how did that phrase -- "the right of return" -- get so carelessly inserted into a document signed by two former secretaries of state, two former senators, a former attorney general, Supreme Court judge, defense secretary, congressman, etc. These are by far the most prominent Americans ever to legitimize a concept whose very purpose is to render any Zionist entity impossible. I'm not one of those who assumes that just because much of James Baker's post-government career has been so lavishly endowed by the Saudis that he must necessarily be a wholly owned subsidiary of King Abdullah, but it's striking how this document frames all the issues within the pathologies of the enemy.

And that's before we get to Iran and Syria. So tough-minded and specific when it comes to the Israelis, Baker turns to mush when it comes to Assad assassinating his way through Lebanon's shrinking Christian community or Ahmadinejad and the mullahs painting the finish trim on the Iranian nukes. Syria, declare the Surrender Gran'pas, "should control its border with Iraq." Gee, who'dda thunk o' that other than these geniuses?

Actually, Syria doesn't need to "control its border with Iraq." Iraq needs to control its border with Syria. And, as long as the traffic's all one way (because Syria's been allowed to subvert Iraq with impunity for three years), that suits Assad just fine. The Surrender Gran'pas assert that Iran and Syria have "an interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq." This, to put it mildly, is news to the Iranians and Syrians, who have concluded that what's in their interest is much more chaos in Iraq. For a start, the Americans get blamed for it, which reduces America's influence in the broader Middle East, not least among Iran and Syria's opposition movements. Furthermore, the fact that they're known to be fomenting the chaos gives the mullahs, Assad and their proxies tremendous credibility in the rest of the Muslim world. James Baker has achieved the perfect reductio ad absurdum of diplomatic self-adulation: he's less rational than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

If they're lucky, this document will be tossed in the trash and these men and women will be the laughingstocks of posterity. But, if it's not shredded and we embark down this path, then the Baker group will be emblematic of something far worse. The "Support Group" is a "peace conference," and Baker wants Washington to sue for terms. No wonder Syria is already demanding concessions from America. Which is the superpower and which is the third-rate basket-case state? From the Middle Eastern and European press coverage of the Baker group, it's kinda hard to tell.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1938; 79stepplan; america; appeasement; appeasementdeluxe; bakerboys; bipartisansellout; blueribboncommission; chicagosuntimes; conventionalwisdom; cutandrun; defeat; democrats; fauxrealism; guesswork; guyfawkeswashington; ianestrategy; iran; iraq; iraqsurrendergroup; iraqwar; isg; isgplanchatandrun; israel; jamesbakeriii; lebanon; leehamilton; mahmoudahmedinejad; marksteyn; middleeast; nojews; rightofreturn; rinos; saudicountryclub; seniordotages; sonnyassad; superpower; surrender; surrendergrandpas; surrendertojihad; syria; thirdratebasketcase; un; usmilitary; visforvendetta
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To: mkjessup
The Iraq Study Group is a Congressional Commission, not a Presidential Commission. Look to John McCain and the rest of the Republican Chicken Hearts in the US Senate for the source of this stupidity.
41 posted on 12/10/2006 5:36:15 AM PST by MNJohnnie (I do not forgive Senator John McCain for helping destroy everything we built since 1980.)
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To: goldstategop

We will still win this war but we are going to absorb some horrific damage before we let loose the nukes, and we will do that- when there is a Democrat in the WH with his Democrat Congress. It will be done in panic and anger, anger at the betrayal by the Democrats' allies whom the Democrats have done so much for and now the Stab In The Back as the third or fourth WMD device destroys a major portion of an American city. The will have finally realized that the perps are not just individual renegades that have eluded control by those wonderful mullahs and all the FBI work in the world is not going to do anything useful.


42 posted on 12/10/2006 5:44:28 AM PST by arthurus (Better to fight them over THERE than over HERE)
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To: Gideon Reader

you are correct...jsut ask G W Bush's grandfather prescott...he was on par with carter/baker/joe kennedy!!!!


43 posted on 12/10/2006 5:46:06 AM PST by hnj_00
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To: goldstategop
If they're lucky, this document will be tossed in the trash and these men and women will be the laughingstocks of posterity

Well, we surely won't be so lucky.

The MSM and Liberals will be promoting this as the necessary "fix" for Iraq - every single hair-brained recommendation in a seamless web. It will be touted for the Iraq War as the 9/11 Commission Report is touted as the definitive document on 9/11 and the WOT, the Holy Grail of answers and solutions, until "nobody" questions it and any thinking or acting otherwise is evidence of "incompetence" and grounds for impeachment, or worse.

44 posted on 12/10/2006 5:47:15 AM PST by Gritty (The ISG Report is a Vietnam bug-out, but with the Jews as the designated fall guys - Mark Steyn)
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To: Van Jenerette

Well, it is Sunday and as long as we're quoting:

"...and women and children will lead them" Isaiah


45 posted on 12/10/2006 5:56:56 AM PST by prov1813man (While the one you despise and ridicule works to protect you, those you embrace work to destroy you)
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To: goldstategop

While I agree the absurdity of the ISG, tagging Baker for the "f'ing Jews" comment in light of shrillary's "f'ing Jew Bastard" as well as the shrill anti-semitism of the modern left remarkably excused by the American Jews tendency to do so much to "f" themselves, brings a red herring to an otherwise sound premise, i.e; the ISG is among the most dangerous pieces of "work" to be visited on the world in the past 100 years.


46 posted on 12/10/2006 6:03:50 AM PST by prov1813man (While the one you despise and ridicule works to protect you, those you embrace work to destroy you)
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To: ByteMercenary

ISG = Incredibly Stupid Group


47 posted on 12/10/2006 6:04:41 AM PST by reg45
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To: All
Not to interrupt the prison-style tag teaming of the ISG, but perhaps it's a little premature to celebrate, considering;

1. The ISG doesn't have any paths to victory.

2. The Administration doesn't either, and will likely be incoportating 'some elements' of the ISG themselves. (In the interests of bipartisanship, of course. No more than half, though. Honest. Probably. Maybe.)

So, laugh while we can. These senile old coots may outfox us all, in the end.

48 posted on 12/10/2006 6:15:51 AM PST by Steel Wolf (As Ibn Warraq said, "There are moderate Muslims but there is no moderate Islam.")
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To: samtheman

:o)


49 posted on 12/10/2006 6:23:13 AM PST by RonDog
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To: SMM48

79 is their cumulative IQ.


50 posted on 12/10/2006 6:25:09 AM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: goldstategop

Bush Lite, of course, that name is already used for something else...


51 posted on 12/10/2006 6:33:24 AM PST by Son House
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To: reg45
ISG = Incredibly Stupid Group

ISG = Israel Should Go.

52 posted on 12/10/2006 6:36:45 AM PST by JCEccles
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To: goldstategop
We love the (ISG) - Iran Support Group
53 posted on 12/10/2006 7:22:00 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: goldstategop

"Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker's "Support Group," relax, it's a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews." That's got to cause some Liberals to pause. This is a sell out of the Iraqis first with Baker ready to throw the Jews in next. When will these people get it through their heads that we're all in this fight for civilization together and that Syria and Iran are on the other side?


54 posted on 12/10/2006 7:24:53 AM PST by elhombrelibre (Democrats are always more comfortable hating Republicans than hating America's enemies.)
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To: goldstategop
James Baker has achieved the perfect reductio ad absurdum of diplomatic self-adulation: he's less rational than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

It would be hard to argue otherwise. Check out this article that also comments on the Iran and Syrai as helpers nonsense: Iraq Study Group: A Substitute for Victory.

55 posted on 12/10/2006 7:29:55 AM PST by NonValueAdded (Prayers for our patriot brother, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub. Brian, we're all pulling for you!)
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To: MNJohnnie
Only in Washington DC would you form a Congressional Commission and include not a single retired military officer with Counter Insurgency expereince or any Arab-Persian Political/Cultural Regional Expert on the panel.

It suggests that the entire exercise was not about winning the war, but about saving Beltway ass, does it not?

No other conclusion is possible.

56 posted on 12/10/2006 7:30:34 AM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: RonDog
"Final Recommendation" Sounds familiar.....
57 posted on 12/10/2006 7:32:46 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: goldstategop

The ISG's plan is the 21st Century's version of the Munich Agreement


58 posted on 12/10/2006 7:36:23 AM PST by Mo1 (Thank You Mr & Mrs "I'm gonna teach you a lesson" Voter ... you just screwed us on so many levels)
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Comment #59 Removed by Moderator

To: goldstategop

As I thought those two boobs Baker and Hamilton were on MTP this morning! Will someone please escort these idiots from the stage? And file their report in the dumpster!


60 posted on 12/10/2006 8:28:30 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: Give therapeutic violence a chance!)
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